Abstract

Glaciers, with their unique and spectacular appearances and rich and varied terrain, have received widespread attention and become important tourist attractions. This paper uses the travel cost method to estimate the recreational value of the glacier tourism resources of Yulong Snow Mountain (also called Jade Dragon Snow Mountain), which is the most developed glacier tourist attraction in China. First-hand information was obtained through field surveys, and the travel costs of visitors visiting the Yulong Snow Mountain glacier were calculated before the method was applied to evaluate the recreational value of the focal glacier resource. The results show that the Yulong Snow Mountain consumer surplus associated with its glacier resources in 2016 ranged from 645.59-3439.10 million CNY, and the total recreational value ranged from 1.97-8.17 billion CNY. Approaches allocating travel costs across multiple recreational sites, however, can vary, and there is large difference in estimated results depending on used approaches. Nevertheless, the results of the analysis can help understand the socio-economic value of glacier resources and provide a reference for their development and protection.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41690143), the Fund from the State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. SKLCS-OP-2016-02), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities from Nanjing Agricultural University, China (Grant No. SK2016033).

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